Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

@2urk+1sVVEBvb is right. Be prepared to answer odd questions meant to turn you off the role so that HM can hire who they have in mind. For instance, "Most people applying for this role have a PHD in Mathematics. What makes you think you can do this role?" Be prepared as much as you want, but you may only get the job by knowing someone or because the person they hired before you can't do the role & they want to hire you to actually fill in the knowledge gap. You'll then be thrown under the bus afterwards. This is how it works at WF.

@2gue+1sVVEBvb, the best post of the day!

@2gue+1sVVEBvb, that is so true, you nailed it. 🤣

Be prepared to explain in what ways you are fully committed to being a bottom.

@ffi+1sVVEBvb. is right. In most cases the HM knows who is getting the role already. They may also just be shopping around & no-one will be "good enough". Don't sweat it. Good Luck.

"Tell me about a time when you had to meet unrealistic sales goals and your boss told you to open up fake accounts on behalf of your customers. How did you respond?"

"Tell me about a time when you worked for a company for 25 years and then got displaced because your job was outsourced to India."

"Tell me about a time when all of the leadership in your group, which had nothing to do with any scandals, were replaced by by overpaid Charlie sycophants from JPM and then forced you to make meaningless changes to your products so they could get a huge bonus."

Also a hiring manager here, typically, at least in my area, we do start the interview allowing you to provide background info about yourself, then, yes we do have prescriptive situational styled questions to ask. I don’t recall specific questions but it could be something like ‘tell me about a time that you identified risk in a process and how you went about remediating.’ Honestly, if you are well qualified for the position, the questions should not stump you. Be prepared, come with examples, and be ready to advocate for yourself. Good luck!

If you are black or g-y or Indian, you will get hired.

OP, why do you stay here? There is a 50% chance that you will get laid off near future. Why don't you apply to a different bank? Any company is better than Wells Fargo. The only reason I am staying here is because I want a severance package. But I am also considering a new job elsewhere.

In my professional career, I have had interviews with a few different banks (Goldman, Bank of America, JP Morgan), and I was hired by all those banks. But I have to say Wells Fargo was the only bank that hiring manager asked me unrealistic situational questions. I guess my answers were acceptable to him. But when I asked him some common business questions, he struggled to answer. I was like how can he function as a manager if he can't answer these basic business questions? I was going to withdraw my application, but he offered me a job with a very good pay, so I took it. But my life at Wells Fargo was chaotic, working under a very incompetent toxic manager. He constantly tried to suppress opportunities for my promotion. I guess he was emotionally insecure or something. I decided to leave and find a new opportunity with another company. The bottom line is, if you see a negative sign from your hiring manager during the interview, don't take the job, run as fast as you can. I can confidently say that Wells Fargo may not be a good place for your career.

I think most of us would agree that Wells Fargo managers and executives are the most corrupt and toxic ones in the banking industry. You can't trust anything they say, that's of course including ignorant hiring managers. I still don't understand why people want to apply here. Someone mentioned that a fish rots from the head down. I hope this bank gets more regulatory penalties.

@qec+1sVVEBvb

This is a brilliant example of projection. TLDR version: 'hiring managers often leap to conclusions before they even ask the questions!'

Oh yeah, like you just did about hiring managers? 😂

You’ll show up ready to talk about your experience and qualifications for the position (like normal people do without incident at other companies), only to instead be greeted with contrived, scripted questions about hypothetical situations that may not even be relevant to the job. Be prepared to think on the fly and cough up pleasing-sounding anecdotes (embellish if you need to, just to get through the sham process).

Wells Fargo's so-called "situational questions" are overrated and flawed. Why? Many hiring managers are often making incorrect "assumptions" before the candidates answer the questions. Even if the candidates' answers are correct by industry standards, if their answers do not meet WF managers' expectations (which are sometimes contrary to the industry best practice), the hiring managers automatically dismiss the candidates. Many WF hiring managers do not necessarily understand the industry best practice to begin with (but they think they know). This is one of the reasons why Wells Fargo gets into legal trouble every few months and making news headlines.

Just ask chat GPT. Be very specific and you’ll receive feedback that should help you

Go to the job description and look at the required skills. If customer centricity is one for example, expect a question around a specific situation where you went out of your way to make recommendations based upon client needs that put the client first.

Also, ask your recruiter to send you the WF interview guides. They should help you prepare to format your answers in the way the panel will be expecting.

I'm not sure anyone's going to want to post them here. To what @xqn said, be prepared for questions that start with: tell us about a time when and what did you do. The situational type questions to me are the hardest as it's hard for me to think of examples on the fly/without a long pause. Be prepared for those - and be prepared with multiple examples because you don't want to use the same scenario for another question.

You could ask someone you know who's recently interviewed what questions they had as the questions are usually similar for the first round.

as a hiring manager. I can tell you that one of the biggest mistakes at any candidate makes is with the situational questions. The questions are all along the same lines of “give me an example of”. It should be easy enough if you know your résumé and you can think of obvious questions around collaboration, dealing with problems dealing with people, etc. that are always going to come up in a panel interview.

Instead, what we get a lot of is “here’s what I would do in this situation”. That is not helpful if you’re asking for a situation about your experience.

Situational questions are more than half the battle and you have to give a specific example of your background. Don’t give us a hypothetical about what you could do or you’re automatically out on most panels.

glassdoor is a good place to find this. WF uses the STAR system. Another way to prepare is to have an AI (chat or gemini) prompt you with questions after providing the AI with the job description and your resume. Also, you say "I’m not the best at selling myself". I can almost predict that WF is not a good place for you to be. It is the most political place I have been in my 40+ year career. People are constantly selling themselves, backstabbing others, and stealing other ideas, designs, and systems. If you are a heads-down worker you will inevitably get your head cut off by one of the fly-by facilitators you have been assigned to. This is not the place to grow a career with.

Question:
You don't seem prepared for this role. Why do you think you want to work here?